‘Gripping’ new novel based on iconic book series now out in Waterstones | Books | Entertainment

This October, literature enthusiasts are stocking up on Winter reads, the cold period providing the perfect opportunity to cosy down with an enchanting tale by the fire. Surprisingly, one new novel is making waves with the older generation, with many Brits predicted to enjoy Waterstone’s newest Gothic, supposedly based on J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter-verse. Despite its gigantic size, 1,040 pages to be exact, both Amazon and Waterstones have claimed Alchemised to be a “phenomenon everyone is talking about and no one can put down”. Could this be your next reading challenge?

In the war-torn Paladia, home to corruption, magic and an elite relying on the power of necromancy, heroine Helena Marino — largely based on the unforgettable Hermione Granger — must battle her blank memory in her fight against the dark order and the enemy that holds her captive. Recently published, the modern blend of Gothic Horror and Fantasy is a captivatingly dark debut by author SenLinYu that was crowned one of the New York Times Bestsellers in September 2025, and celebrated a million sales in the U.S.A in the first half of October alone.

The book is a guaranteed hit with the company Legendary, buying the film rights before the first launch of the novel, supposedly worth over $3 million. Now available as a paperback (a lesser hazard than its hardcover counterpart), this success follows SenLinYu’s online history of creative writing; their committed audience gained from fanfiction publication Archive of Our Own (AO3), known to host a multitude of Harry Potter-inspired stories written by amateur writers and fans alike.

A previous alchemist, Helena Marino, was a key member of the political Resistance, not unlike the Order of the Phoenix or Dumbledore’s Army. Suffering through the suppression of her magic and the brutal deaths of her allies and friends, the protagonist must now face the collapse of her world.

Speaking to Polygon, the author said: “When I wrote the story, I was in what was considered a pretty niche fandom [a fan subculture]. Then it blew up and was viral everywhere”. Openly, they explained how their online story began a life of its own, adding: “It was kind of ripped out of my hands, in that I didn’t really have a lot of control where it went, how it was getting presented or how it was getting promoted to people. Then people started to sell it, and I was very limited in my legal means of dealing with that”.

With a monumental 16 million individual downloads and an accumulation of 470 million views on TikTok, states a Reddit review thread. Maintaining their username from the self-publish site, her global fanfiction Manacled runs the course of an impressive 70 chapters, reimagining a wizarding dystopia where Voldemort won the war, focusing on unsuspected characters Hermione and Draco Malfoy.

And for those opposed by the author’s literary past, SenLinYu promises to have avoided the “Romantasy” genre taking over 2025’s bookshelves, the Polgon stating the author to have rebuffed any comparison to the contraversial Fifty Shades of Grey, another product of fanfiction, and hopes for the public opinion of fanfiction to be more than erotica.

Alchemised‘s conflict is said to explore the religious divide between the alchemists’ Order of the Eternal Flame and the powerful Undying, said to be a thrilling yet “very readable” text; the Daily Mail adding: “A work of quite staggering ambition. Detailed world-building, intricate plot, Gothic claustrophobia, that wraps the readers in its dark embrace”. A Waterstones Bookseller agreed that the work was “beautifully written and completely devastating”.

Achemised is now on offer for 50% off on Amazon Prime for £12.50, and on Waterstones for “£21.99” (hardback).